How Al is changing future of football

QPR'S relegation at the end of the 2012-13 season acted as an unlikely precursor of sorts to the introduction of artificial intelligence in football.

- Matt Majendie

At the start of the season, midfielder Esteban Granero arrived amid fanfare from Real Madrid but was unable to halt the club's drop from the top flight.

He returned to Spain the following season, first on loan with Real Sociedad before joining permanently. While there, he befriended a team analyst, who found himself unsure what to make of the reams of data he had at his disposal.

Granero's solution was perhaps atypical to that of his peers. "I took the data and started asking clever people about it," he recalls. "I went to universities and asked professors about artificial intelligence, as I felt AI could improve data analysis, as in other industries."

By 2016, he had founded Olocip, an early entry into football AI used to aid decision making when it comes to signing players and also around in-game decisions.

"We've been developing for years," he explains. "Now the Al wave is coming - we see AI applications worldwide in every industry - we are taking advantage of what we've been building. For years, we were struggling to make people understand how AI can improve analysis of data. Now people come to us."

Olocip is working with 40 clubs, including one in the Premier League and another in the Championship, neither of which he can contractually name.

AI in football is already big business and will only become bigger, and Granero is only one person and Olocip one company working in an ever-expanding sphere. As Granero puts it:

"AI will bring efficiency in decision making at a club, not only in sports science but economics, the development of a club, fan engagement, ticketing, marketing services. It will bring efficiencies in everything."

Al's role is multi-faceted covering a broad spectrum of areas:

scouting, coaching, athlete health, officiating, ticketing and even the matchday experience for a fan.